Iraqi Ministry of Electricity spokesman causes friction with Iran

In a statement issued today, the Iranian company said, "the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity owes Iran an amount of $ 5 billion in exchange for Iranian gas. $ 3 billion of the total of these assets are now frozen at the Iraqi TBI Bank."

"More than two billion dollars of these debts are due, and the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity is yet to pay," it noted, "We repeatedly reminded the Iraqi side of the agreements concluded previously, before decreasing in the volume of gas exports to Iraq."

The company added, "the Iraqi side, according to the bilateral agreement, owes the Iranian Gas Company more than one billion dollars as well, as delayed fines in paying the debts stipulated in the agreement."

The Iranian company continued, "the repeated warnings were met, unfortunately, by lack of interest from the Iraqi side. Therefore, we had to reduce the volume of gas supply," declaring at the same time its commitment to all the terms of the agreement signed between the two sides.

The Iranian Gas Company's statement comes in response to the Iraqi Electricity Ministry spokesman's recent statements in this regard.

The ministry's spokesman, Ahmed Musa, stated earlier that Iran's reduction of gas imports resulted in Iraq's loss of 7,000 megawatts of electricity, consequently reducing energy supply hours.